


Regrets

by olivelily



Category: Bates Motel (2013)
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-10-07
Updated: 2013-10-07
Packaged: 2017-12-28 16:49:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 517
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/994245
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/olivelily/pseuds/olivelily
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He’s her first big mistake and her only real regret. The realization hits her and it’s a shock straight through her body; she feels it chill her bones and sure enough, goosebumps pop up on her skin. She sits up to reach for the afghan at the foot of her bed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Regrets

**Author's Note:**

> Set following the events of "A Boy and his Dog" and events in the beginning of "Underwater."

_“Yeah, sure, Norma.”_  
  
Her eldest son’s words come back to her sometime in the night, and she’s stuck on them. Stuck in that moment, because it was there, because it existed. Brief as it was, it existed. If only it could have lasted...  
  
He’s her first big mistake and her only real regret. The realization hits her and it’s a shock straight through her body; she feels it chill her bones and sure enough, goosebumps pop up on her skin. She sits up to reach for the afghan at the foot of her bed.  
  
Next, she looks at her watch, on her bedside table. Four in the morning... great, she hasn’t slept at all yet tonight, and she knows there’s no point in trying anymore. This was the first night she thought she could sleep in her room again, after walking in and finding Zach Shelby’s corpse in her bed... when was it, a day ago, two days ago? Norma wasn’t sure, she had lost track of time, and she’s been catching herself doing that more often lately.  
  
She’s never been much for regrets. She doesn’t have a lot, doesn’t really believe in it, even though other people do. But Dylan... Dylan is the exception to his mother’s rule.  
  
He showed up at her door, out of the blue, so cocky and sure of himself, walking into her life (and Norman’s) like he belonged there. And he does, of course, because he’s her son, he’s Norman’s half-brother. The three of them shared a life together once... but it’s been actual years since then, and for Norma, a lifetime--because that was another life, her and Sam and Dylan and Norman.  
  
Dylan was long gone by the time Sam died. Norma had wondered then, briefly, if she should try to contact her eldest son, let him know that his stepfather had died... whether that was for her sake or for Norman’s, she couldn’t tell, and the thought was soon abandoned in favor of more pressing matters.  
  
Shuddering again from the cold coursing through her veins, she pulls the afghan tighter around her shoulders and shuts her eyes, knowing she won’t sleep but trying at least to stop the memories, the feelings overtaking her at this ungodly hour of the morning. Tears slip down her cheeks no matter how much she tries to hold them back.  She’s thinking only of Dylan, now her hero. Dylan, who saved her life and Norman’s life when Deputy Shelby had a gun pointed straight at her. Norman would have been next, Norma was sure of that, and the thought haunted her even now, even though Shelby was dead... because of a bullet from Dylan’s gun.  That moment, Norma could recall perfectly, and knew she always would. She had run to Dylan, grabbed him in the tightest hug she could. A hug that would be routine for Norman, but for Dylan... not since he was little, had they shared a hug.

He barely clung to her, even as a child, and now here was his mother clinging to him, and he was all grown-up.


End file.
